ABSS approves $36 million budget request

By Isaac Groves

Published: Monday, April 14, 2014 at 11:00 PM.

“The county finance officer did not ‘find’ anything,” Simpson said.

She said the article and Manning’s public comments did not help the often already-strained relationship between the board and county commissioners, but the board could do a better job explaining its work to the public recognizing that the jargon in education is not always clear to people outside the industry.

Fund 8, Cox said, started in 2010-11 school year. The state Department of Public instruction and the Local Government Commission worked to separate money “generated by students” from money counties contribute to school budgets. The money in Fund 8 comes from Medicaid payments to the school system, grants for projects like the Gear Up college preparation project, and providing transcripts to students.

The fund started the year at about $7 million. The district used $3.8 million of that this school year. Cox proposes using $2.9 million in the 2014-15 budget bringing those savings down to about $300,000.

The Fund 8 money would go to some teaching positions, electricity and some fuel costs. It would replace $3.3 million from the district’s savings, or general fund balance, that the district cannot draw on any more.

The district’s general-fund savings are down to about

$7.6 million, according to Cox’s presentation — with $2.8 million unassigned, meaning it is not restricted to savings or assigned by the government to some specific purpose. The district’s auditor told the board in November it needed to stop dipping into its savings after using it to fill budget gaps during the recession.

The Alamance-Burlington Board of Education voted unanimously to approve a $36 million request to the county commissioners as part of a proposed

$186 million budget, at its April public meeting Monday night.

The board voted also to ask to use close to $1.2 million in bond and lottery money.

Before the meeting the board had another presentation on the budget from Superintendent Lillie Cox, and a public hearing.

Cox added information on the Fund 8 fund balance this time. It became an issue in the past week as county finance officer Tom Manning brought the county commissioners information about money the school system had in its savings.

Several board members said they were disappointed both in Manning and with an article in the Alamance News with a headline referring to a $7 million fund. In the last paragraph it says the school system already plans to spend the fund down to less than $300,000.

Board Vice Chair Patsy Simpson said Cox had been clear with the county commissioners about how much money the schools system had and where — including Fund 8. The board, Simpson said, asked Cox to look into using Fund 8 money before working up a request to the county.

“The county finance officer did not ‘find’ anything,” Simpson said.

She said the article and Manning’s public comments did not help the often already-strained relationship between the board and county commissioners, but the board could do a better job explaining its work to the public recognizing that the jargon in education is not always clear to people outside the industry.

Fund 8, Cox said, started in 2010-11 school year. The state Department of Public instruction and the Local Government Commission worked to separate money “generated by students” from money counties contribute to school budgets. The money in Fund 8 comes from Medicaid payments to the school system, grants for projects like the Gear Up college preparation project, and providing transcripts to students.

The fund started the year at about $7 million. The district used $3.8 million of that this school year. Cox proposes using $2.9 million in the 2014-15 budget bringing those savings down to about $300,000.

The Fund 8 money would go to some teaching positions, electricity and some fuel costs. It would replace $3.3 million from the district’s savings, or general fund balance, that the district cannot draw on any more.

The district’s general-fund savings are down to about

$7.6 million, according to Cox’s presentation — with $2.8 million unassigned, meaning it is not restricted to savings or assigned by the government to some specific purpose. The district’s auditor told the board in November it needed to stop dipping into its savings after using it to fill budget gaps during the recession.

County Commissioner candidate Barry Joyce was the only speaker at the public hearing on the budget. He said the only fault he could find with ABSS’ spending was in having a higher ranking for supplemental pay from the county for administrators than for teachers, saying smaller districts like Person and Chatham counties should not have higher local supplements than Alamance, drawing away local teachers with better pay.

“We should never lose a teacher to either one of those districts,” Joyce said. “Education is the only thing we have left in Alamance County — we just lost another 1,000 jobs.”

Joyce was referring to LabCorp’s decision to move 975 jobs out of Burlington to the Citi building on Interstate 40/85 near Greensboro. No LabCorp workers will lose their jobs.

The proposed 2014-15 budget would increase by about

$6 million, including an additional

$2.7 million from the county to operate schools, and an additional $1.3 million in capital funds for repairs and upgrades.

That would bring county funding to about $35 million or

19 percent of operating funding if the commissioners approve the spending. The commissioners do have an $8 million budget gap to fill.

Close to 65 percent of the ABSS budget, or $120 million, would come from the state, with some increases expected based on public statements from Gov. Pat

McCrory saying he would increase teacher pay. Those increases would add to the county’s spending by about $287,000 to increase pay for county-funded employees.